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Re: Fripp and Eno



Thanks Mark,

I read and enjoyed the third chapter. Is the whole research paper
available online?

I think it's little more than a footnote, but I found the title of
that Ussachevsky piano looping piece. It's a live performance at the
Museum of Modern Art in 1952 that was broadcast on radio, so I'd say
it's the first live looping I'm aware of.  The title is "Sonic
Contours" by Vladimir Ussachevsky. It was performed and broadcast live
and is basically piano played through a tape delay. Otto Luening also
participated in the concert, but "Sonic Contours" is only credited to
Ussachevsky. The length of the delay and amount of feedback varies
over the performance (maybe at the hand of Luening?). At times the
delay is very short producing a slap back echo effect, but at the 5
minute mark, the delay is lengthened and the there is sufficient
feedback that several layers of people piano are heard simultaneously.

Amazon has it as an 99 cent mp3 download:
http://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Contours/dp/B000S4B8YK

On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 8:17 AM, Mark Showalter
<folkstone57@operamail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> History can be tedious indeed. However, most things that are informative 
>can be tedious.In fact, I believe the literal translation of the word is: 
> Incredibly boring tedious information that accumulates over the years & 
>can be summed up in two words, " Who cares? "
>
>  I remember a fellow while I was in school in Nashville who used 
>answering machine message tapes to record loops & then play two or more 
>on different cassette players in his room to create aleatoric music. I 
>started using the same technique but recorded the loops onto an 2" eight 
>track I had at the time. My friend told me of a composer he had heard who 
>used tape loops to both record & perform & I believe the name was 
>Ussaschevsky.
>
>  As an interesting side note, once I started using the answering machine 
>tapes a local Radio Shack almost resorted to banning me from their store 
>as they were the only inexpensive source of these tapes & the bloody 
>things broke so often I was constantly returning them. When asked why I 
>was having such a problem with the tapes, I replied I was a Music Major 
>at Belmonte College & I was using the tapes to compose aleatoric music. 
>The idiot who was apparently the manager of the store said that using 
>their tapes for that purpose was not covered by any Radio Shack 
>guarantee, I asked him to show me in writing where Radio Shack had this 
>policy specifically stating that recording aleatoric music voided their 
>guarantee. What was surrealistic at the moment was the sound system was 
>playing the Hungarian composer Ligeti's "Atmospheres"........ and yes, 
>there was a guy standing in the shadows dressed in black smoking a 
>cigarette too..... and an old priest with a large black hat walked into 
>the store carrying a even larger black satchel.... very strange........
>
> According to Seamus Online:
>
> Ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the composition 
>of electronic music, and one of its most potent forces. He produced the 
>first works of &#8220;tape music,&#8221; a uniquely American synthesis of 
>the French musique-concrète and the German pure electronic schools.
>
> However, doing a search on Fripp's diary using Ussaschevsky name did not 
>produce any results.
> If interested, you might also take a look at the following link:
>
> livelooping.org/researchpaper/Chapter_3.pdf
>
>>
>> History can be tedious. I'm pretty sure that Vladimir Ussachevsky
>> performed a piano piece by Otto Luening in the fifties that clearly
>> used the sound on sound tape recording technique that would later be
>> used by Terry Riley and even later by Fripp & Eno. I don't have the
>> title, but I'm pretty confident on this. The Ussachevsky recording
>> that I heard wasn't very interesting and I don't think it's really
>> that important who was first. Riley really explored looping as an
>> instrument, and I think he's really the first looping composer and
>> performer.
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Toby G <carpet8@mac.com> wrote:
>> > I wonder if the first record player, tin can recording device or 
>whatever,
>> > carved one groove at the same radius the first time it was tested.  
>Like,
>> > they didn't think to make it a spiral?
>> >
>> > t
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: Gareth Whittock
>> > To: loopers-delight@loopers-delight.com
>> > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 10:10 PM
>> > Subject: RE: Fripp and Eno
>> > Not many people know this but I invented looping by placing a piece of
>> > cardboard over the erase head of a WEM copicat tape delay unit.
>> > It was only much later that I discovered that other people had also
>> > discovered it using other means ;-)
>> >
>> > Peace
>> >
>> > G
>> >
>> > ________________________________
>> > From: mark@markfrancombe.com
>> > Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2010 00:40:05 +0200
>> > Subject: Re: Fripp and Eno
>> > To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>> >
>> > thats right actually...
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 11:10 PM, andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> 
>wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > mark francombe wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Stockhausen is known to have used the technique
>> >
>> > afaik Stockhausen had a completely different technique
>> > using just one tape deck with an actual loop of tape.
>> >
>> > The tape heads were reordered, so instead of going
>> > Erase>Rec>Playback like in a regular deck
>> > they were changed to
>> > Playback>Erase>Record.
>> >
>> > andy
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > mark francombe
>> > www.markfrancombe.com
>> > www.ordoabkhao.com
>> > twitter @markfrancombe
>> > http://vimeo.com/user825094
>> > http://www.looop.no
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Art Simon
>> simart@gmail.com
>> myspace [dot] com/artsimon
>
>>
>
>
>
> Mark Showalter
> Minden Jot!
>
> myspace.com/folkstone57
> http://www.last.fm/music/Mark+Showalter
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>
> --
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-- 
Art Simon
simart@gmail.com
myspace [dot] com/artsimon